Chapter 15 - The Trap Beneath the Crane Hotel
His name was Victor Saye.
Former Crane enforcer.
Forty-three.
Patient.
Professional.
Loyal to money.
He had no interest in revenge.
That made him more dangerous.
Gabriel wanted Dominic moved out of Boston.
Dominic refused.
Elena agreed with Gabriel.
“You have a five-million-dollar price on your head.”
“Technically my head is attached to the rest of me.”
“This isn't funny.”
“I disagree.”
“Dominic.”
He saw the fear in her expression and stopped joking.
“Running gives everyone connected to the archive permission to believe intimidation works.”
“Staying alive is not cowardice.”
“I know.”
“Then leave for a few weeks.”
“What about you?”
“I don't have a bounty.”
“No.”
His expression darkened.
“You're simply the person most useful for getting to me.”
Elena hated that he was right.
Noah was temporarily moved to a secure location with Mrs. Patterson.
He thought it was a “vacation.”
Elena went with him initially.
Dominic stayed in Boston.
For three days she barely slept.
On the fourth, her phone rang.
Dominic.
“Before you yell—”
“That's an excellent start.”
“I found Victor.”
“Where?”
“He's watching the Crane Hotel.”
Elena sat up.
“Why?”
“We think he believes there's a remaining archive server underneath the building.”
“Is there?”
Silence.
“Dominic.”
“Yes.”
She stood.
“You left out another secret server?”
“My family collected secrets professionally.”
“What are you planning?”
“Use it as bait.”
“No.”
“You aren't here.”
“Still no.”
“We can control the site.”
“You said that about the warehouse.”
“That was Gabriel.”
Across the room, Gabriel could be heard saying, “Unfair.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Promise me you're not going inside alone.”
Dominic paused.
“Elena.”
“Promise.”
“I'll have federal surveillance.”
“Not what I asked.”
He sighed.
“I promise.”
He broke it two hours later.
Victor entered through a service tunnel.
Dominic followed.
Agent Sloan's team lost visual contact underground.
By the time Gabriel realized Dominic had gone ahead, he was already inside the old archive chamber.
Victor waited.
“You always were arrogant.”
Dominic stopped.
“And you were always boring.”
Victor smiled.
“Marcus paid well.”
“Marcus isn't paying anymore.”
“Other people are.”
The old server room hummed around them.
Victor raised a weapon.
Dominic did not.
“You really came alone.”
“No.”
Victor glanced behind him.
Nobody.
Dominic smiled.
“I brought approximately sixty federal agents.”
Red targeting lights appeared through upper vents.
Victor looked around.
Dominic continued.
“You should know something about old Crane buildings.”
“What?”
“Too many hidden windows.”
Victor's smile vanished.
He slowly lowered the weapon.
Then an alarm sounded.
Not planned.
Dominic frowned.
Victor did too.
Server deletion.
Someone outside had remotely activated a purge.
Gabriel shouted through the radio.
“Thomas had a secondary protocol!”
Thomas Vale from custody had apparently left behind an automated destruction command.
If the basement servers overheated, fire could spread.
Again.
Dominic cursed.
Victor took advantage.
He ran.
Dominic chased him.
Bad decision.
Predictable Dominic decision.
They reached the lower corridor.
Victor locked a security gate behind him.
Dominic struck it.
“Open!”
Victor laughed from the other side.
Then smoke emerged from the ceiling.
Dominic stepped back.
He had been trapped underground again.
For one horrible second, the basement mansion returned.
Stone.
Chain.
No air.
No exit.
His breathing changed.
He realized something Elena had recognized before he did.
He was terrified of basements now.
Dominic Crane, who feared almost nobody, had become afraid of locked underground rooms.
“Dominic!”
Elena's voice came through his earpiece.
He froze.
“Elena?”
“I told you not to go alone.”
“How are you—”
“Gabriel called me because apparently nobody in your organization can control you.”
Gabriel said over radio, “Accurate.”
Elena continued.
“Listen to me. There is a maintenance exit twelve feet behind you.”
Dominic turned.
Nothing visible.
“Where?”
“Gray panel.”
He found it.
“Locked.”
“Keypad.”
“Yes.”
“Try 1204.”
“Why?”
“Your archive numbers began with twelve-four.”
He entered.
Red light.
“No.”
Elena thought.
“Your birthday.”
“No.”
“Marcus's?”
Dominic entered Marcus's birthday.
Green.
Door opened.
Dominic stared.
Even now the building carried evidence that brothers once mattered to each other.
He escaped seconds before smoke consumed the corridor.
Victor was arrested outside.
Dominic emerged.
Gabriel stared.
“She's going to kill you.”
Dominic took out his phone.
Elena was still connected.
“I assume you're angry.”
Her voice was frighteningly calm.
“I will discuss it when I see you.”
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
“That's worse than shouting.”
“Much.”
Three hours later Dominic arrived at the secure house.
Elena opened the door.
He began.
“I can explain.”
She slapped him.
Not hard.
Enough.
Then she kissed him.
Dominic froze.
So did Elena.
She stepped back.
“I am still furious.”
Dominic stared at her.
“Understood.”
“You broke your promise.”
“Yes.”
“Never again.”
“Okay.”
She looked at him.
“You're agreeing too quickly.”
“I have recently discovered incentives.”
Elena almost smiled despite herself.
Then Dominic became serious.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“When this is over, I don't want to keep finding reasons not to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
He stepped closer.
“That I love you.”
Elena went still.
Dominic continued.
“I don't know when it happened.”
“I do.”
He waited.
“The basement.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“You fell in love with me while I was chained to a wall?”
“No.”
She smiled.
“You fell in love with me when I came back.”
Dominic thought.
Then nodded.
“Yes.”
That sounded exactly right.
But before Elena could answer, Noah entered wearing pajamas.
“Why are you standing so close?”
They stepped apart instantly.
Noah narrowed his eyes.
“Adults are weird.”
Then walked away.
Elena covered her face.
Dominic laughed.
May you like
And for the first time since this began, the future felt closer than the danger.
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